Layoffs, cuts again forecast for SD schools

With education funding expected to go from bad to worse, San Diego schools are bracing for immediate cuts to this year’s budget and another round of walloping cuts next year that would result in larger classes, massive layoffs and a reduction in art, music and other programs.

Even as the school board confronts unpopular and difficult decisions, trustees said Tuesday night they are determined to avoid insolvency and a state takeover — things school officials in recent weeks said were real threats.

“As a board we need to make it clear to this community that that discussion is off the table,” board President Richard Barrera said. “We are not going to turn over control of this district to the state.”

The San Diego Unified School District is bracing for midyear cuts of $26 million to $30 million to its $1.057 billion operating budget, based on disappointing financial projections from the state.

Superintendent Bill Kowba Tuesday night said taking that kind of financial hit this far into the school year would require the district to tap $22 million from a reserve account, spend $4.5 million in real estate proceeds, and impose a hiring freeze to save $1.5 million. Another $1.7 million in savings would come from eliminating some 55 nonteaching jobs by Feb. 2.

Kowba also presented a menu of cost-cutting measures that would be required to balance next year’s budget. Under the worst-case scenario, the district faces a shortfall next year of about $92 million. Even without midyear cuts, the deficit could reach $72 million.

The school board must adopt its first interim budget for the 2012-13 school year this month. Trustees on Tuesday considered Kowba’s daunting recommendations that would call for laying off more than 760 employees, including teachers and central office staff. Kowba’s plan would increase class sizes in several grades and would bump enrollment in the earliest grades from 24 to 30 students; downsize the number of vice principals and nurses; and cut music and art programs.

The board is set to vote next Tuesday to approve a preliminary budget for next year and has until June 30 to adopt a final budget. Trustees are hopeful the teachers union would agree to concessions by then that would negate some of layoffs and cuts.

“The reality is without extension of furlough days, without pushing back on the seven percent (teacher pay raise), it looks like 764 more people will be laid off and lose their jobs next year,” trustee Kevin Beiser said. “What can we do to agree as a collective entity with all the union to save these jobs?”

Under the district’s contract with the San Diego Education Association, teachers are set to receive raises next year and end two years of furloughs that cut their pay 2.7 percent annually and reduced two school years by five days each.

In other financial news, the school board also looked for ways to save its struggling school construction bond program.

San Diego Unified’s $2.1 billion bond construction program has fallen on tough times due to the real estate collapse, with the likelihood of issuing any new bonds in 2012 uncertain.

The district’s payments for the 2008 Proposition S and the 1998 Proposition MM bond measures are $15 million to $20 million above tax revenues that would be generated by maximum tax rates from property owners through 2020.

At the recommendation of the committee charged with overseeing the bonds, the district last month suspended new projects that would immediately halt new construction, project planning and design to curtail bond spending.

The bond freeze will continue until March or April, when the board is expected to consider a plan to restructure its bonds to allow the district to issue between $90 million to $150 million in bonds in 2012.